A STUBBORN GIRL'S JOURNEY TO SUCCESS

Hi, my name is Archana and I have been working for Vitesco Technologies / Continental for around 8 years. Currently, I am working as a General Manager for Business Development and Human Relations in the Sensing and Actuation business unit. 

The sheer reason for sharing my story is to give confidence and self-belief to all those women who feel they are ordinary and lack that special talent for becoming a successful woman.

I firmly believe that your success can be described or measured by none other than only you. Whether you aspire to be a world-class professional or a successful housewife - something which gives meaning and purpose to your life - is SUCCESS for you.

I was born and brought up in Uttar Pradesh in a middle-class family. People who are aware of the street culture there will concur that being a girl with ambition, grit, perseverance, and aspiration for success is not welcomed in that kind of society at large. Thanks to the progressive nature of my father and his dream of getting his children to graduate from Banaras Hindu University (BHU), we settled in Varanasi. As luck would have it, both my siblings graduated from BHU. But I chose a different path in life.

The turning point was when I opted for computer science instead of life science. In my limited identity of independence, I made an audacious declaration to my father that post my 18th birthday, I would be financially independent and would approach them only for their blessings and not for money. Post my graduation, when I started working as a Software Engineer, it dawned on me that my area of interest was more in managing the people aspect of the business. Around that time, I chose to continue my studies at the faculty of Human Resources. Later, I realized this was one more turning point in my life.

Despite societal restrictions that are imposed on girls, that deprive them of higher education, freedom to choose between marriage and career, my father stood by me always and allowed me to do what I wanted to, thus fueling my ambitious streak. My only advantage was a supportive family, especially my father. He never doubted me and always stood by me.

I came to Pune, Maharashtra, in 2005 for my post-graduation. Even though Pune was far better than Uttar Pradesh when it comes to girl safety, things for women are never the same as for men. In 2013, I came across an offer that helped me achieve my first milestone of leading the complete HR department by the age of 30.

In fact, I was 29 when I got an offer to be HR head for a company. By then I was pregnant with my son Arya. The marriage didn’t change me much, in terms of my career target, but motherhood changed me to a great extent. My career took the back seat for a while when I decided to spend my 100% time with my little one. I took a break from work for 9 months.  After 9 months, when I re-started my career, it was very difficult for me to leave my baby at home and go to work. However, with support from my mother-in-law and husband, I could restart full-fledged.

In my current position at Vitesco Technologies, I am continuing my career journey by driving the competition analysis for Business Development and engaging in Strategic Workforce Planning and Expert career for the Sensing and Actuation business unit.

I am proud to be a part of the Membership and Chapter Chair for Women Of Vitesco Technologies Global ERG (Employee Resource Group). The reason for joining the ERG is to support the company to arrive at a day where it would be so equipped that there will be no need to have any talks or initiatives promoting gender diversity and this will be a given. Our goal is to make the workplace equally fit for both female and male colleagues. 

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